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First Session

overnight at portal area/compass place (ThreadOver) waiting for brass men and blue-grey-furred double-tailed monkeys to leave; when they don't, teleport out to airship

3 days travel to Lola (Mieran city)

9 days in Lola shopping and doing work on the ship

3 days in transit to swamp compass location

2 days healing from wounds, poison in swamp

Vision of guy in stone chair, chained; one chain breaks. Triggered by killing of purple snake in swamp.

Chains are black metal with purple flecks of rust. Maleos thought this represented purple rust rotting the chains that hold a demon, but Saul was convinced the figure in the chair supported the gods, and that the chains represent the Usurper's influence. Compass supported Saul's interpretation.

The Woman Who Crossed the Bridge, but a younger version of her - hard to tell through the grime, but at least 5 years

Side note: Maleos has burned the next 5 days of downtime post this session asking questions of the Compass. This will happen immediately after all immediately-pending issues resulting from this session (e.g., the rescued humans; the party deciding where to go next; etc.) are resolved. No new spell research, magical items, spell refreshing, etc. until Maleos gets pulled away from his long question session.

Picking Up Next Time

Immediately, you have a bit of a standoff between the party and the other humans that were fighting the demons. They know you also fought off the demons, but they don't know what your intentions are, as none of you have spoken. This is where we'll start.

Also, everyone is poisoned by the demons - the initial effect was a big strength penalty, but further effects could be worse, potentially even fatal. Saul doesn't have enough spells to heal everyone immediately - he can neutralize the poison in 4 people before he's out of mythic power (since he doesn't have neutralize poison memorized at the moment). Finnbarre can delay poison on 1 other person, but that leaves at least 3 people under the full effects of the poison, with unknown consequences. Thankfully, Saul has some emergency alchemical concoctions - they're thoroughly nasty, but they'll also delay the poison by long enough for him to rest and memorize spells, which will allow him to cure everyone else affected by the poison. So… who gets a neutralize poison now, and who has to choke down a bitter, lumpy bark-sludge to hold the poison at bay for the next 12 hours so Saul can memorize more neutralize poison spells?

Almost everyone also has some injuries, and Saul can heal those, but this will take a little time.

Finally, you rescued these humans… but was that the goal the Compass had in mind (hint: no)? Or is there something else here that you'll need to accomplish?

Curing Poison

Maleos does have a suggestion where using the Compass will allow Saul to cast a couple additional neutralize poison spells by temporarily accessing the stored power in the Compass. Basically, cut Saul. Push the compass against the wound and both of them hold onto it. Cast skill sharing, linking the two via the Compass. Then Saul will have some access to the compass and could draw the bonus mythic power uses out of it to cast two free neutralize poison spells. As soon as Maleos and Saul break physical contact, though, the spell will end. This is a little risky - since Saul would be doing something "unnatural," it could draw the attention of the Usurper. However, there was already a corrupted thing here; its attention might already have been drawn. And this is a minor weirdness, and Saul hasn't done anything unnatural in a while. It could be less of a risk because of those factors, but it's still a little bit of a risk.

Maleos TODOs

Compass Questions:
"Is there a word that indicates the class of things that you will burn the way you burned that purple snake in the forest recently?"
"Do you understand how Saul's and my method of de-corrupting the corrupted Dharven in Halvar worked?""
*copies our world map onto a fresh piece of paper using the old Magic Quill* *carefully draws a grid over it* *numbers each cell in the corner* "Which squares on this map correspond most closely to the real-world location of the Zwallen libraries on this continent?"
"Current count of attackers and defenders in Yegek's siege?"

When Maleos asks Saul, "Do you suppose we could use that as a feint? Do something Weird out in the middle of nowhere for a split second, then teleport away? Or perhaps to lure him to a place where he'd be fighting at a disadvantage?" Saul's reply will be, "It's always possible. Assuming you could predict what it would do. It might be worthwhile if we could find some kind of position of strength to act from, somewhere where we've got good indications that it would be at a disadvantage." (emphasis GM's)

Meeting the New Crowd

You've just finished a raucous melee fighting this small, winged demon-things that healed in that disconcertingly rapid fashion, no matter how much damage you seemed to do to their corpses. Yoshirou-Mura and Finnbarre, having come down from the airship to close in battle, are working over the bodies of the advance guard that had first engaged you; another ship-length down the swamp, you all are doing the same to the batch that had engaged the other humans. There is a sudden quiet as the dull, wet thuds of weapons against mud suddenly cease, each of you realizing nearly simultaneously that sufficient damage had been done to the corpses to give you at least minutes of peace and quiet.

In the sudden stillness, you are now facing the three humans with which you'd so recently become unplanned allies. The woman with the beaded hair holds her mace high at her side, bleeding but determined and on guard against possible attack, her mud-encrusted left arm cautiously raised to fend off potential blows on her formidable plate armor. slightly behind her and to her left, the small man nervously fingers his palmed daggers while a tentative smile plays upon his lips. In the rear, the final member of the party - the human invader from the Isle - stands half-crouched, the circle of her small shield hiding the bottom of her face. Her sword arm remains lowered but prepared to sweep up in a parry at a moment's notice. All three chests heave, gasping breaths shaking their weakened and bleeding bodies.

Saul, out front, slowly raises his hands in a placating gesture, leaving his morningstar pinning a demon-flier against the swamp. As he does, the braided-hair woman shifts slightly. She says soemthing in a language you don't understand - moreover, a language very unlike any you've yet heard, a language of pops and clicks as well as consonants and vowels. After a moment, the small man replies, and the braided-hair woman snaps something back at him. Out of habit, your eyes drift to the side of Saul's face as he listens. His features are locked into that formal, stoic face he only makes when he's clearly trying not to laugh at something that might be impolite to laugh at.

As the conversation between the two humans stops (the third, the woman from Isle, remaining quietly on guard the entire time), Saul lowers his shield. Keeping his right hand open, he slowly shrugs the shield back onto his back, speaking clearly but slowly and calmly to these strangers. "I can understand you. I'm laying my weapons down. We offer truce, at least for now, and I give you my word we will not attack you unprovoked. Please hold and be patient for one moment while I translate for my companions." With that, the strangers lower their weapons but keep a wary eye on you all as Saul takes two cautious steps backwards and turns away, directing you all to huddle up 30' or so from the strangers.

TODO group huddle and conversation

"What did they say?" Aida asked.

"First, the lady with the beaded hair said, 'They fought off the mephits - do you think they're friendly? God, I hope so. I could use some friendly. Maybe with that skinny one.' The man replied, 'You're only saying that because you think you could take him.' The woman then responded, 'If he lets me, I damn sure will!' Then she paused, swore, and added, 'I'm dry on spells, nothing left for a translation spell. What do you think the odds are we can even communicate with them?' That is when I replied to them."

Peri the Pegasus

Thema's mount isn't with the group when the party first arrived to save them because it had valiantly attacked the purple-infested-snake when it arrived, picking it up and flying away. It suffered many attacks and is on the verge of dying (few HP, some status effects as well). Thema summoned it back once the party was revealed to be friendly.

The snake had to escape the pegasus's grasp and crawl its way back to the paladin's party before it could attack them. The actions of the pegasus plus the actions of the PCs saved Thema's party from sure defeat at the hands of that serpent and its demons guard.